MONTREAL – Ski-Doo snowmobile maker BRP Inc. is returning to the public markets with a modest-sized offering that will leave its current owners with voting control of the company.

Ten years after Bombardier Inc. sold the business to private investors including Boston private equity firm Bain Capital, BRP’s owners are moving forward with an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company is seeking to raise in the range of $250-million. Marketing for the deal hasn’t started.

“I think investors are excited about these companies,” said Mike Smith, an analyst at Feltl & Co. Securities in Minneapolis, noting that BRP rivals Polaris Industries Inc. and Arctic Cat Inc. have both had spectacular share price runs over the past two years.

“They like the international growth potential. And domestically, consumers have certainly come back” with a renewed appetite for motorsport vehicles after the 2008 financial crisis and recession, Mr. Smith said.

Bain is the largest shareholder in BRP with an estimated 50% stake. Quebec’s Bombardier and Beaudoin families, whose ancestor Joseph-Armand Bombardier invented the recreational snowmobile and founded the company, hold about 35% through an investment vehicle called Beaudier Group. Pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has the remaining 15%.

The three shareholder groups are staying invested in the near term and will control all of the company’s multiple-voting shares, according to the prospectus. Bain will exit its position over time, said one person familiar with the matter. Under a deal negotiated between the two parties, the Caisse will offer Beaudier first rights to buy its shares should it decide to eventually divest its stake.

The offering is for subordinate voting shares, which have one vote each compared to the six votes for the multiple-voting stock.

Bain has stayed invested in BRP much longer than its typical five-year timeline. It had sought to exit earlier, but previous plans to take the company public in 2008 were derailed after the collapse of New York-based Lehman brothers that September, which triggered losses and writedowns for financial institutions worth almost US$1-trillion.

Those events also hit BRP hard.

The company’s nearly $3-billion in annual revenue dropped 40% over the following six months and it laid off 2,000 workers, a big chunk of them in its home base of Valcourt, Que., east of Montreal. Dealers were stuck with a glut of stock they couldn’t sell as they scrambled to pay interest to lenders who had financed their inventory. Roughly 15% of them went bankrupt.

The Quebec government eventually stepped in with a $50-million emergency loan that allowed BRP to continue its research and development projects.

From the wreckage, a smaller and more nimble BRP has emerged. Business has recovered. The company tallied some $121-million in profit on revenues of $2.9-billion for its fiscal year ended Jan.31, 2013, according to the prospectus. There’s been an improvement in earnings in each of the last three years.

Based on the rout in financial markets this week, this may not seem like the best time to take a company public. But the sellers believe there is significant investor appetite for an established Canadian consumer product name in a market dominated by resources and banks — especially one tied to North American growth. Aside from Lululemon, there are very few successful Canadian consumer brands that are publicly traded.

BRP said in the filing it will use the proceeds to repay debt. If the over-allotment is exercised by the underwriters, it will use any additional funds for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The company on April 15 paid special distributions totalling $376-million to its existing shareholders, most of it in dividends. It said it expects to pay them another $155-million before the IPO closes. It won’t pay any dividends on the new shares it will offer.

Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, UBS AG and Citigroup Inc. are leading the sale.